Battling Brothers
by heyits.reagan
Summary: Louie hates when his brothers fight (i'm bad at titles. get used to it)


Looks like I'm in a new fandom, woo-oo (pun totally intended)!

This is based off of episode eight & I tried to keep spoilers to a bare minimum. I hope I didn't go too OOC in this, it's my first time writing for Ducktales. Hope you enjoy :)

* * *

His older brothers have been at each other's throats since they met Mark Beaks.

Louie tossed a side glare at the TV anchors who were still talking about the supposed hostage situation at Waddle Enterprises. He never cared much for the guy, but after hearing what really went down a few days earlier, Louie wasn't especially fond of him.

"Dewey," Huey sighed, dragging a feather down his face, "seriously, this stuff isn't even hard. You can't dropout of school every time something is difficult."

"Of course not," Dewey agreed, "you only have to do it once. Besides, this stuff isn't hard for _you_."

Huey rolled his eyes. "Really? This again?"

"I'm just saying that being born a genius sure helps make things a whole lot easier."

"It doesn't take much to make decent grades, Dew. Just ask Louie."

The heated glares of his brothers suddenly fell on Louie. The youngest shook his head immediately and said, "No way, don't drag me into this. I'm still not even sure what you guys are fighting about."

"Just that Huey thought I couldn't make it as a rich genius's intern because I'm not as big of a genius as he is."

"I never said that!" Huey argued.

"No, but it was written all over your face. I'm your brother dude, I know when you're trying to lie. Plus, you stink at it."

Huey rolled his eyes. "I just meant that you'd rather like working for somebody who wasn't all about business."

"Because I couldn't handle it."

"Wha-No! Stop putting words in my mouth!"

"It doesn't matter if you said it or not! Face it, you thought I wasn't smart enough to work for him, didn't you?"

The oldest took a deep breath. "So what if I did? It doesn't matter now since he's been outed. I take it back, though. You wouldn't have had any trouble working for a guy like him."

Dewey opened his mouth but snapped it shut. He balled his fathers into fists. "Whatever," he snapped. "I'm going for a walk." He stormed past his brother, roughly knocking the elder's shoulder.

Louie tentatively reached for Huey's arm, but Huey shoved him away. "I'm going to my room." He stalked off, muttering to himself and leaving Louie in a tense silence.

•••••

Of all the weeks Webby could've been sick, it had to be this one. Her granny was keeping her on room arrest for the sake of the other mansion residents. Louie had contemplated sneaking in to give her some company and give him something to do, but Beakley's sharp hawk eyes seemed to follow him everywhere. There was no chance he was getting anywhere near Webby's door, so that plan was out.

He knew dinner would be tense already, but without the fourth duckling, things were borderline unbearable.

Scrooge eyed the older brothers skeptically. He'd witnessed their bickering dozens of times since they'd come to stay with him, but things had never been this bad. Even Donald was put off by their behavior, looking to the youngest for answers.

Louie caught his uncle's questioning gaze and shrugged.

Huey glanced up from his place for the first time since dinner started. He stared at a bowl of mashed potatoes sitting next to Dewey. Swallowing back his pride, he cleared his throat and asked, "Dewey, can you pass the potatoes?"

Louie held his breath, waiting for his brother's response. He looked over at Dewey, who glanced at the bowl of potatoes as well. He raised an eyebrow and Louie refrained from groaning. He should've known Dewey wouldn't be that mature.

"I dunno Huey, I don't think I'm _smart enough_ to handle that."

Louie face palmed; he couldn't help it. Dewey was just digging himself a bigger hole. His brothers glared at each other across the table. Before either could start another round of arguing, Louie hopped on his knees, leaned over the table, and shoved the bowl of potatoes toward Huey.

He sat back with a huff, glancing down at the plate of food he's barely touched. With an eye roll, he pushed away from the table and slid out of his chair. "I'm finished," he said, stuffing his hands in his sweatshirt pocket and walking out of the room.

•••••

That night, Louie decided to put an end to this fighting.

There were two things in the past that Louie could recall that had distracted Huey and Dewey from their arguments. The first was when Donald had been fired from another job and came home in a bad mood. With the help of Louie, the oldest brothers put aside their differences and worked together to cheer Donald up.

The second time had been when came home with a bloodied beak. Huey and Dewey had been in the midst of fighting over a cute girl in their class when they caught sight of their little brother. It was like a switch had been flipped. While they patched Louie up, Huey and Dewey conjured up ways of getting back at the jerk.

It was too late to get Donald involved, but Louie was sure he could handle this on his own.

At one AM, Louie leapt into action. He jerked upright in his bed and yelled loudly, all the while grabbing his pillow and flinging it across the room toward his brothers. Huey jolted awake and Dewey rolled out of bed in surprise.

"What's happening?!" Huey cried.

"Somebody better be dying because that _hurt_ ," Dewey growled. Louie heard feet pad across the floor and the overhead light switched on. He had to bite back a grin at his brothers' faces. Huey's eyes were wide and panicked while Dewey was tangled in his sheets and _glaring_ at his little brother.

"Lou, are you okay?" Huey asked. Louie looked down guiltily, which probably helped sell his act even more. Huey was never somebody Louie wanted to prank because the older was so caring and never meant any harm.

"Lou…" Dewey warned, pushing himself to his feet. Dewey used to be a prime target in Louie's schemes, but ever since the fatal prank war of 2016, the pair was forced to call a truce before things got too out of hand.

"I… Sorry," Louie mumbled. "I had a bad dream." Over the years, he had perfected the art of making himself sound small. He used his skill mostly to get out of hard chores on the houseboat or if he's a few dollars short at the candy shop. Most people in their old neighborhood knew of the Duck triplets and knew Louie was the youngest, so that usually played in his favor as well.

Dewey's skeptical glare fell. He glanced back at Huey and for the first time that week, the brothers shared a look of _understanding_.

Louie felt his bed dip and he looked up to see his brothers had crowded around him. Huey offered a smile, "You wanna talk about it?"

Truthfully, Louie had expected (and maybe hoped) Dewey to call his bluff and he'd have to resort to Plan B. His fingers itched for the weapon he had stashed under his bed.

"I, um, well… It was about Uncle Donald and Uncle Gladstone. Except, uh, it was you guys instead of them. We were trapped in that casino again and you guys wouldn't quit fighting…"

Huey opened and closed his mouth, searching for something to say. He looked at Dewey and Dewey stared back. Louie's eyes jumped from one brother to another, silently urging them to talk to each other.

"You're afraid we're gonna end up like them?" Dewey asked, looking back at Louie.

The younger shrugged. "All you guys have done this week is fight. Is it 'cause of the internship at Waddle? I thought neither of you got that."

"Actually, _I_ did," Huey said with a shrug.

"Yeah, but I-" Dewey began, but Huey cut him off with an elbow jab to the rib. "What, you can brag but I can't?"

"That's not the point," Huey snapped.

"No, the point is that _you_ got the internship, right? Doesn't matter what I got out of it, all you care about is _you_."

"Is that seriously what you think?" Huey hissed, shoving Dewey. Dewey narrowed his eyes and shoved back. Louie pushed himself away as the two engaged in a shoving battle.

"So much for the fluffy brother junk," Louie muttered, reaching under the bed and grabbing his weapon. He slid onto the floor and clocked his gun. Huey and Dewey froze, Huey trapped in a headlock.

"I knew you were faking!" Dewey cried, releasing Huey to wave an accusing finger at Louie.

"Trust issues," Huey mumbled, glaring at Louie.

"Sorry, but I thought I could get you guys to forget about your fight if you had a common goal or whatever. Clearly that didn't work, so here's Plan B."

Dewey raised an eyebrow. "Threaten us with a Nerf gun until we make up?"

"Yep. Nobody's going to sleep until you guys are friends again."

Dewey and Huey looked at each other. "Huey," Dewey sighed, "I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry, too," Huey added, nodding at his brother. "Can we go to bed now?"

Louie rolled his eyes. Two darts shot out of the gun and bounced off his brothers' arms.

"Ow!" they cried.

"I didn't believe that for a second," Louie explained. "Guys, c'mon, this has been your longest fight ever and I'm sick of it. Do you know how _boring_ it is around here by yourself? I can't believe Webby survived for so long."

Huey rolled his eyes. "Nice to see your concern for us, bro." Dewey chewed on his lip, eyes trained on the floorboards.

"You couldn't handle the fact that I was better than you at something," Dewey said, slowly raising his eyes to meet Huey. Louie lowered the gun, relieved that they were finally talking.

"What?" Huey asked. "Dew, you're better than me at a lot of things and vise versa. No, I couldn't handle the fact that I worked my butt off to get that spot, yet you did nothing and _still_ got a higher position. That wasn't _fair_."

"I'm sorry. I can't help that Mark liked me better."

"Dewey," Louie warned, raising the gun threateningly.

"I'm glad he liked me better," Dewey continued. "That just means you're too smart for him, Hue. He couldn't keep up if he wanted to."  
Huey smiled a bit. "Thanks, Dew."

"You were right, by the way. I never wanted that job until you doubted that I could work for somebody like him. Even if the guy turned out to be a phony, you deserved it."  
Frowning, Huey said, "I didn't want you to think you weren't smart enough. You are smart, just not…"

"Book smart?" Louie offered.

"Yeah. I like to do things by the book. You work best thinking on your feet. That doesn't make you any less intelligent than me. I'm sorry, Dewey."

Dewey smiled. "I'm sorry too, Huey."

Louie dabbed his sweatshirt paw against his eye. "Okay, that was really sappy. Better than what I was expecting."

Huey and Dewey glanced at each other, mischievous grins growing on their lips. Before Louie could take aim, his brothers pounced, tackling the youngest to the floor. The Nerf gun bounced out of Louie's grasp. Dewey sat on Louie's legs while Huey attacked every place he knew Louie was ticklish.

"Ah, no, stop!" Louie gasped, swatting his feathers at Huey. His cries of protest mixed with choked laughter that rattled the walls. "G-Get off! Huey!"

"Aren't you glad we made up?" Dewey teased.

"No!" Tears streamed down Louie's cheeks. "Go back to hating each other! Go back to hating each other!"  
Huey snickered. He withdrew his fingers and sat back, giving the youngest a chance to breathe.

"What was that for?!" Louie demanded, rolling his head to the side to glare at Huey.

"You threatened us with a Nerf gun," Huey explained with a shrug.

"We make a pretty good team, huh Hue?" Dewey smirked, slapping feathers with his brothers.

Louie breathed heavily. "I hate both of you."  
Dewey grinned down at him. "We love you too, bro."

The next morning, Huey and Dewey were awake before Louie. They raced downstairs, following the familiar scent of pancakes and bacon. Webby sat at the table, eagerly shoveling her breakfast into her mouth as syrup dribbled down her chin.

"Hey guys!" Webby greeted, waving happily.

Beakley smirked at the ducklings. "I assume you two are friends again?"

"Mmhm," Dewey hummed, mouth watering at the breakfast before them.

"Yeah, we're good," Huey answered, cringing as his brother hungrily grabbed three pancakes and plopped them down on his plate.

"Where's Louie?" Webby asked.

"We're letting him sleep."

Dewey nodded. "Yeah, he had kind of a long night." The brothers exchanged amused looks and laughed. Upstairs, Louie snored softly in the safety of his bed. For the first time that week, he slept peacefully knowing everything was back to normal.

* * *

ignore this


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